Stuck in a Moment

I’m happy to report that I feel compelled for the first time in a while to tell an actual fishing related story. Not just the lazy camera dump and caption level blog entry that has polluted this site for some time. I had an interesting trip recently that seemed worthy of doing an actual write up. But to simply cut to the chase, that story will not be told in this edition of fishing with Andy. I’ll leave that for another day. Let us continue to plod our way through the flotsam and jetsom of the Adrift universe. This one is a simple case of standing up straight and carrying your own weight. We won’t let a light infestation of Brook Trout gill lice rain on our parade. Because truth be told, there’s nothing like a stout round of Brooks and Browns to cure what ails ya.

I’ve never really been able to connect with the flowery language of the River Runs Through It brigade. Lots of people are out there with their high-end cameras and even higher end intellects describing the beauty of nature with a much bigger sacks (of ammo) than I possess. Not to be dismissive of anyone’s efforts, because it’s all a melting pot of good, it’s just that I’m not generally drawn into the romanticized view of what’s going on. I guess I’m sort of a simpleton who takes things at face value. Don’t get me started on the unwinnable war of “I’m smarter than you, I’m funnier than you, I dress better than you, and oh by the way look at my big fish crowd.” That may seem like a strange comment coming from the likes of me, but I’m pretty much a walking contradiction a-hole that simply calls it like I see it. Which pretty much makes me an “intellectual homeless person”, from an angling philosophy standpoint. Perhaps I should just stick to the bro-mance high-fives, puppy dog tails and lollipops, and leave the observations to others. I promise to put on my positivity hat tomorrow because this is just the sort of stream of consciousness shit that gets me in trouble. I’ve never worn the clichéd political rhetoric “flip-flopper” badge so proudly.

But I digress, one of the greatest things about this endeavor beyond the false claims of angling prowess, is when the stars align and you’re able to capture what it’s really all about. Are there any photographers in the house? I tend to become acutely aware of what’s really going on through the “natural light,” often experienced at dusk and dawn (despite my inability to capture and reproduce it in any truly meaningful way). Immersing myself in these moments strips away the varnish of everyday life. It affords me the opportunity to take a deep breath and see the things that aren’t otherwise there. Many of you are probably asking what I’m smoking right now, and that’s a perfectly reasonable inquiry. It’s an each to their own proposition. But when you boil it down to the essentials though my own personal lens. It’s not about what you’re catching, which brands you think are “hip”, or even stockpiling more unnecessary stuff. It’s not about impressing strangers wherever the zeros and ones are flowing, or how you go about your business. It’s about where you’re standing, and the simple fact that you’re even standing at all. Every once in a while your low rent point-and-shoot will do you a favor, and you’ll truly see all that you can’t leave behind.